Whatever It Takes
by RoseGoldRomantic
Summary: Another fic based in the Tesseract fic universe! Avengers: Infinity War follow-up fic. Next in the Tesseract fic series. Just a forewarning, this one has a major POV shift from the past entries, for obvious reasons. Keeping with my recent trend in fic titles, it's named after a track on the official soundtrack.
1. Prologue

It seemed that his searching across the cosmos would be endless, every planet he could think of empty of the individuals he searched for. Until… until she put it on her head. Like a white-hot poker in the emptiness of the void, her presence called out to him. Earth… of course.

As he shimmered into existence on the plain, he looked over and saw her. The breeze whipped her hair around, and he immediately stepped up to her and wrapped her in his arms as tightly as he could. He dug his face into her neck, deeply inhaling in relief.

"I've missed you." he murmured into her neck, tears almost springing from his eyes. "I couldn't find you after the explosion of the ship, I thought you might be dead. I was trying to find you, but I couldn't feel anything until I realized my helm was gone, and that you must have taken it. I followed it, and here it is…" he leaned back from the embrace, a smile spreading across his face. "Here you are." he whispered.

"We will talk later, Brother!" Thor shouted angrily at him, shoving a creature away. "You will have a lot of explaining to do. Make yourself useful!"

Loki nodded in response, causing his knives to appear in his hands. "Let us avenge Asgard."

(Y/N) and Loki worked together, battling their way across the battlefield as a well-oiled machine. Noticing Rogers in distress, Loki assisted him before returning to (Y/N)'s side.

They were called away to a separate area, and Loki was grateful for the opportunity to redeem himself in the Avenger's eyes. Using his magic as best he could while they ran, he dispatched several creatures before coming up upon Corvus Glaive.

"Leave this place!" He shouted at the menace, brandishing his knives.

"I see that you once again have cheated what has long been coming, Asgardian." Corvus snarled in return. "I'll see that you cheat it no longer!"

With Roger's help, Loki disarmed Corvus, sending his lance soaring across the forest floor. As Corvus was distracted with Rogers, Loki took the lance and ran through Thanos' henchman as deeply as possible.

Just as it seemed that the tide of the battle might have shifted, (Y/N) paled.

"He's here." Vision murmured fearfully.

Cued by Vision's warning, Thanos stepped out of a Space Stone portal. The portal snapped shut behind him, the glow of the space stone dulling.

"Eyes up." Rogers commanded, engaging his shield. "Stay sharp. You three, protect Vision."

Loki, Wanda, and (Y/N) encircled Vision, hoping to defend him from the mad Titan.

While Wanda and Vision argued in hushed tones, Loki kept a watchful eye on Thanos' approaching figure. As he cut one Avenger down after another, Loki stepped forward to defend Vision.

"You lived." Thanos mused, staring at Loki in surprise. "You're craftier than even I gave you credit for." He glanced over to (Y/N), smirking as he continued. "And she lived too, You're a hardy group, you Asgardians. It almost makes me sorry to destroy more of you."

"You will destroy NO MORE." Loki hissed. "The things you and yours have done to me have stripped me of my life, my home, my parents, and my people. You will NOT take any more from me. You will NOT take my family."

"For all the things you learned from this stone…" Thanos said, the space stone glowing within the gauntlet, "For all the things it showed the both of you, neither one of you ever saw this inevitable end? And to think I thought you were of use at one time."

Thanos raised his fist, raising both Loki and (Y/N) from the ground, restricting their movement. With a simple gesture, both were thrown into a tree, the impact winding them and leaving them defenceless.

A blast of golden energy radiated from Vision, the stone in his forehead shattering into hundreds of pieces. Wanda laid on the ground sobbing, and Thanos approached her slowly.

Thanos and Wanda argued in hushed tones, and the gauntlet began to glow green. As Thanos turned his wrist to the side, time seemed to rewind, rebuilding the stone in Vision's forehead. Loki reached out to (Y/N) using what little energy he had to try to shield her as Thanos placed the Mind Stone into the gauntlet.

A surge of energy swept up Thanos' arm, reaching up to his neck.

Thor's voice boomed from the sky, throwing his new axe directly at the Titan. Thanos tried to counter it with a beam of energy from the gauntlet, but it was of no use. The axe continued its rapid descent, slicing through the beam until it struck Thanos in the chest.

Thor landed in front of Thanos, placing his hand on the axe.

"I told you…" Thor growled, pressing the axe further into Thanos's chest, the Titan crying out in pain. "You'd die for that."

Loki stood slowly, fear and hope slowly rising to meet each other as he watched Thanos take shallow breath after shallow breath.

"You…" The titan choked out, "You should have gone for the head!"

Thanos raised his gloved hand, and time seemed to slow, yet fly by as Loki shouted out. The Titan snapped his fingers, power radiating from the glove.

"What did you do?" Thor screamed at Thanos, all staring at the sizzling infinity gauntlet, "What did you do?"


	2. Chapter 1

Thanos groaned, flexing his hand in the gauntlet. The Space Stone activated, opening a portal immediately behind the Titan. Thanos leaned back, falling back into the portal. As soon as he fell through it, the portal closed, leaving Stormbreaker to fall to the dirt below.

"Where did he go?" (Y/N) asked, leaning further into my chest.

I opened my mouth to reply, only to be interrupted by someone approaching.

"Steve?" the man called out, confusion written across his face and saturating his tone.

My stomach sank lower than the pits of Hel itself as I took in what was happening. The man had begun to slowly disappear, flakes rising off of him as his feet completely turned to dust. He reached out to Rogers as he fell, turning completely to ash before falling to the forest floor. Steve stumbled over, reaching out to touch the nothingness that the man had left behind.

The plan that Thanos had always spoken of during my time with him had finally come to its horrendous fruition. Half of all living things would be wiped out, erased from existence. Thanos had never told me what he had planned on doing afterwards, simply that he looked forwards to looking down on a grateful universe. Try as I had, I had been completely useless in preventing the lives of half the universe to be spared.

"Oh no." I breathed, still wanting desperately for the events before my eyes to be false. "No. It can't…"

"What is happening?" (Y/N) asked, her eyebrows raising in confusion. "What just happened?"

"(Y/N), no…" Thor murmured.

"What?" (Y/N) asked, holding out her hand as we stood up.

My worst fears were realized as (Y/N)'s skin begin to flake as Bucky's just had.

"No," I whispered, helping her to the ground and kneeling beside her. "No, no, no, I've only just found you again. It can't end like this, you can't leave me, you can't-"

I was cut off by her lips pressed to mine, and her arms wrapped around me as tightly as she had ever held me. Tears streamed down my eyes as I looked to Thor, hoping, praying that he might have an answer to my unspoken question.

"I'm scared." (Y/N) gasped in shaky, tearful breaths. "What's going to happen?"

"I don't know, my love." I responded, my voice cracking despite my attempts to remain strong for her. "But you'll be alright." I lied, running my hand through her hair, brushing the delicate strands out of her face and taking in her stunning beauty. "You're my brave little Valkyrie, remember?"

"Loki?"

"Yes?"

"I love you." She whispered, closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath. "I always will."

As the last of her evaporated before my eyes, my ability to remain calm left with her. Hot tears streamed down my face, my mind reeling in shock, disbelief, and grief combined. I was faintly aware of Thor's hand gripping my shoulder in attempted comfort, but his efforts did nothing to contain the unbridled rage and sorrow that clashed within me. I had been lied to for nearly my entire life, and one by one had watched the ones I cared most deeply for be injured or killed while I stood helpless to stop it. The world seemed to draw in around me, sucking the air from my lungs while repeatedly grinding my stomach through the floor as a new wave of anguish washed over me.

"What happened, where is everyone?" Rogers asked, panting.

"What is this?" another said, walking up in a suit of the Iron Man armor, "What the hell is happening?"

"He did it." I breathed, forcing myself to stand.

"Oh, God." Steve said, reality setting in.

Turning to face Thor, my composure cracked further. His face was awash with disbelief and grief as well, and it was all I could to to approach him. He reached out to me first, a gesture for which I was grateful. Sharing the embrace we should have shared on the ship, we mourned with each other for our people, our family, and the ones we now would never see again.

"What do we do now?" Natasha said, helping Rogers to his feet.

"We call Fury." Steve answered, his stoic "captain" persona taking over to lead in the stressful situation. "And we hope to God that Stark made it out alive."


	3. Chapter 2

"What do you mean he's gone?" Banner groaned, running a hand down his face, "You're telling me that not only is Tony still gone, but Fury disappeared too?"

"It would seem that way." Striker mumbled. "The only thing we've found at Fury's last known location is some sort of pager. We fear the battery might run out soon though."

"Send it here." Steve said, "We will find a way to keep it running. If that's all Fury cared about when he started dusting, that means it must be extremely important. Is the pager flashing any words or coordinates?"

"We'll send it to the Avengers Compound now." Striker confirmed, handing the object off to someone outside of the projection's range. "You should receive it within an hour. And as far as any clues on the pager, the only thing the screen is showing is a strange symbol with a star of sorts at the center. At first we thought it was an older design of your suit, Cap, but after some research we found that to be inaccurate."

"So you have no idea who this device is calling?" I asked, "Or if whoever at the other end is even around after all that happened?"

"Listen here," Striker snapped, "We don't exactly have much to go on at this point, and if it was important to Fury, it's worth a shot at keeping around. You are on some THIN ice, and if it wasn't for Roger's steadfast defence of you and your apparently "changed" character, you'd be on your way to the Raft right now."

"That's enough." Steve said, stepping between myself and the projection of Striker, "Thank you, sir. We'll get that thing hooked up to a generator of sorts ASAP and let you know if we hear anything back."

Steve shut off the projection, taking a heavy sigh as the blue light fizzled out.

"Thank you." I said, surprised that he would have defended me in any capacity. "You didn't have to do that."

"I know." he replied, a smile briefly flashing on his face, "But you really have changed. I think that deserves a second chance alone, notwithstanding that I don't like it when people bully others. I'm also not Striker's biggest fan, so it made the whole ordeal easier for me to begin with."

Steve leaned closer to me, lowering his voice to a hushed tone, "And Thor needs you here, not locked away somewhere leaving him all alone."

Thor sat in an adjacent room, his brooding features the only external indication of the trauma that had occurred days prior. A bowl of rolls sat in front of him, untouched but waiting should he change his mind.

"I want to make sure he doesn't start self-destructing with guilt after the way things happened." Steve said, "If there's anything you think will help, we could really use your insight."

I paused, taken aback with Steve's sudden complete trust, and his reaching out for my help. While the experiences of the past few days had been nothing short of devastating, I had a hard time comprehending that someone who once viewed me (and perhaps rightly so) as an enemy was treating me with such empathy and compassion... almost as a friend.

"If there's anything we can do to monitor where half of our remaining people might be, that would be a good place to start." I said, gesturing to some of the readouts that were projected along the walls. "One of us was able to get a group of our people away from Thanos' ship and should be heading this way. If they send out a distress signal, we will need to be able to assist them in their journey here."

"On it." Natasha said, "Would you guys send out a distress signal in whatever language it is that you guys normally speak, or is it english?"

"It would be in Allspeak, so you'll be able to understand it." I clarified, "I don't know where they ran to though, so it would be best to scan in a general radius outwards from earth to ensure we pick up any signal they send."

As Natasha and I set up the monitoring frequencies that we would need, Banner went about producing a generator for the pager that would soon arrive.

"I hope that whatever Fury had in mind with this pager, it works." Steve said, sitting in one of the nearby office chairs.

"For everyone's sake, I agree." Bruce mumbled.

We all sat around the conference room days later, watching the global missing persons count steadily ascend as the pager beeped away in its container down the hall.

"This is a nightmare." Steve signed, his eyes trained on the growing number projected in front of us.

"I've had better nightmares." Natasha replied, sighing.

Rhodey walked in moments later, breaking our attention away from the screens.

"Hey." he said, leaning against the door frame. "So that thing just stopped doing whatever the hell it was doing."

We all followed Rhodes into the other room, where Bruce stood by the pager, its screen dead and blank behind the glass.

"What have we got?" Natasha asked.

"Whatever signal it was sending finally crapped out." Bruce responded.

"I thought we bypassed the battery?" Steve countered.

"Oh, we did, it's still plugged in." Rhodes answered, "It just stopped."

"Is there no way to turn it on again?" I asked, "Surely there's a power switch."

"Reboot it, send the signal again." Steve agreed.

"We don't even know what this is!" Banner said, irritation lacing his voice.

"Fury did." Natasha said quietly. "Just do it please. You tell me the second you get a signal, I want to know who's on the other end of that thing."

The second Natasha had finished her statement, my blood ran cold. Something powerful was closeby, and we were nearly defenseless…

Natasha and I turned at the same time, but I was the only one holding a knife up in response.

A woman stood before us, her appearance seemingly completely human, but an energy radiated from her the likes of which I had only seen once before. There was something extremely familiar about the power, but it was also different in a way that I could not yet discern. Whatever it might be, she was most definitely a force to be reckoned with.

"Where's Fury?" She said, staring all of us down.

"You're the one he called for?" Steve questioned, and pointed to the symbol on her suit. "That's the symbol that was on the pager."

I lowered my knife slowly, "Fury has met the same unfortunate demise as half of this universe." I said, "Not before sending the message that has undoubtedly brought you here."

"Do you know what happened?" she asked, her stance relaxing slightly. "And my name is Carol Danvers. I've known Fury for a very long time."

Bruce interjected, "You ever heard of a guy named Thanos?"

"Can't say that I have, the universe is a big place." She quipped, irritated with how long it was taking to get the information she desired.

"Well he's the reason everything's happened." Bruce responded, "He took all the infinity stones, the power stone, the mind stone, the tesseract-"

"The tesseract?" she interrupted. "I thought Fury had that safely tucked away."

"A lot has changed since you were with Fury." Steve said, sighing. "I know all too well how fast things move when you're not around to see them. We're trying to formulate a plan to find him and bring him to justice, whatever justice we can manage. To find out where he is, we need to find out if Tony Stark is still alive, and if he is, we need to bring him home."

"Where was he headed last?" She said, "I'll find him."

"He was last seen following a giant donut spaceship out of the atmosphere." Rhodey said, "He followed because some squid looking thing had taken Doctor Strange and the time stone, but we don't really have a heading."

"If that's the case, he'll be on Titan." I said, sighing. "Maw was doubtless trying to bring that stone back to Thanos so he could pursue the other that remained on earth."

"Titan it is." Danver said, marching outside quickly before shooting into the atmosphere and out of sight.

"Who the hell is she?" Rhodes snarked.

"Whoever she is, she has nearly the full force of the Tesseract's power within her." I said, turning to face the rest of the Avengers. "Yet it's in a different form than the kind that resided in (Y/N)."

My heart sank and was pulled at by another wave of anger and heartache merely mentioning her name again. Before I could control it, my face flickered with the emotions that I did not want to deal with in front of anyone. I had dealt with grief many times before, of course, but this time I couldn't simply run away and be alone. I saw the appeal of Thor's choice to seclude himself even in the Avengers compound.

"Let's just be glad she's on our side, then." Steve said, gripping my shoulder in support. "Maybe there's a chance she can help us find him and make him bring everyone back."


	4. Chapter 3

The days passed with a harrowingly slow pace, every hour feeling as a lifetime. Everyone in the compound was on edge, in their own stage of grief for the fallen, and anxiety for Danver's return. Over two weeks had gone by, with no answer from Danvers.

Thor had settled in to a pattern that seemed a stronger version of behavior that I had seen before. His sole focus seemed externally to be finding the rest of the Asgardians, but I knew that he was grinding his proverbial axe for a rematch with Thanos. The guilt that he carried with him was nearly tangible, and my attempts at reassurance went without response. Thor would not resume any form of normalcy until Thanos had been brought to justice.

One night, as I continued monitoring the system we had scanning for the Asgardians, the ground began rumbling beneath my feet. I looked up to see Steve and Natasha both running towards the front doors, and I followed suit.

Bruce and Rhodey were already outside, and we slowed to a walk as we watched a spaceship slowly float to the ground, Danvers carrying it as she slowly descended. Pepper Potts ran out to stand with us, tears welling in her eyes. As the ship rested on the ground, the boarding ramp deployed, and two figures shuffled out.

Nebula supported Tony as they came out of the ship, and Steve ran up to help support Tony.

"I couldn't stop him." Tony breathed, his body thin, weak, and doubtless shutting down from lack of food and water.

"Neither could I." Steve replied, frowning.

"I lost the _kid_." Tony confessed, his distress evident.

"Tony," Steve said, his usually calm composure beginning to crack, "We lost…"

"Is um-" Tony's question was abruptly cut off by Pepper's embrace.

"Oh my god." She said, tears now falling in relief.

"Let's get him inside." Rhodey said, "We can talk shop in the morning."

When morning arrived, we all gathered in the boardroom, sitting and standing around the table. Thor continued to seclude himself and sat in a seperate area, the rolls he had once denied now being consumed.

"It's been 23 days since Thanos came to Earth." Natasha said, explaining Earth's predicament to Tony and Nebula. "World governments are in pieces. The parts that are still working are trying to take a census. And it looks like he did… exactly what he said he was going to do. Thanos wiped out fifty percent of all living creatures."

"Where is he now?" Tony said, sitting in a wheelchair as an IV bag continued to drip, "Where?"

"We don't know." Steve answered. "He just opened a portal and walked through."

"With the space stone at his disposal, he could be absolutely anywhere." I clarified, capturing Tony's attention.

"Are you guys sure I'm not dead?" Tony said, gesturing to me. "Last time I saw you, you tried to kill all of us. Now we're all buddy-buddy?"

"There were several powers at play at that time," I said carefully, "I do sincerely apologise for the destruction and injury I caused in New York. Thor and I have both come here in hopes of restoring our people's lives, though our search for the remaining still continues."

"Speaking of Thor what's wrong with him?" Tony asked, gesturing to my brooding brother.

"Yea, he's pissed." Rocket replied, "He thinks he failed. Which of course he did, but there's a lot of that goin' around here, aint there?"

"Honestly, until this exact second, I thought you were a Build-A-Bear." Tony said, startled.

"Maybe I am." Rocked mumbled.

"We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now." Steve said, attempting to re-center the conversation. "Deep Space scans, satellites, and we've got nothing. Tony, you fought him."

"Who told you that?" Tony snarked. "I didn't fight him. No, he wiped my face with a planet while the Bleeker Street Magician gave away the stone. That's what happened. There was no fight."

"Did he give you any clues, any coordinates, anything?" Steve pressed, our hope waning.

"I saw this a few years back, you know." Tony griped, "I had a vision, I didn't wanna believe it. I thought I was dreaming."

"Tony, I'm gonna need you to focus." Steve said, trying to prevent Tony from derailing the conversation further.

"And I needed you. As in past tense." Tony said, his tone cutting and bitter. "That trumps what you need. It's too late buddy. Sorry. You know what I need?" Tony stood up, shoving things off of the table. "I need to shave. And I remember telling you, Cap."

Tony moved to hit Steve, but not before Rhodey and myself restrained him.

"Tony, Tony, Tony, stop!" Rhodey said, trying to calm his friend.

"Otherwise what we needed was a suit of armor around the world." Tony continued, his tone harsher with ever word. "Remember that? Whether it impacted our 'precious freedom' or not- _that's_ what we needed!"

"Well, that didn't work out, did it?" Steve said, his throat constricted and tight.

"I said, 'we'll lose'. You said, 'We'll do that together too.' And guess what, Cap? We lost." Tony spat. "You weren't there. But that's what we do, right? Our best work, after the fact? We're the Avengers, we're the Avengers. Not the _Pre_vengers, right?"

"Okay, you made your point." Rhodes stressed, "Just sit down, ok?"

"Nah, nah, nah." Tony insisted, shoving Rhodey and myself away. "Here's my point."

"Sit down!" Rhodey repeated.

"She's great, by the way." Tony said, gesturing to Danvers as his breathing became more and more labored. "We need you. You're new blood."

"Tony!"

"Bunch of tired old mills!" Tony continued, "I got nothing for you, cap. I got no coordinates, no clues, no plan, no options. Zero. Zip. Nada. No trust. _**Liar.**_"

Steve's face fell, Tony's continued attacks wearing down his usually collected exterior. As the one-time friends continued to stare at each other, Tony ripped his ARC reactor from his chest, shoving it into Steve's hand.

"Here, take this." Tony spat through labored breaths, "You find him, and you put that on. You hide."

Tony collapsed to the ground, exhausted after the stress of the argument.

"Tony!" Rhodey exclaimed as Steve, himself, and I all gathered around Tony to support him.

"I'm fine." Tony breathed, "I…" Tony lost consciousness, and Steve and I carried him to a hospital style bed in another room.

Bruce set up a new IV for Tony, and Pepper came in to his room to be with him as Rhodey left and came in to the conference room once more.

"Bruce gave him a sedative." Rhodey said, "He's gonna be out for the rest of the day."

"You guys take care of him." Danvers said, "And I'll bring Xorrian Elixir when I come back."

"Where are you going?" Natasha asked.

"To kill Thanos." Danvers replied coolly.

"Hey, you know, we usually work as a team around here." Natasha said, causing Danvers to take pause. "Between you and I, we're also a little fragile."

"We realize that this is more of your territory." Steve said, "But this is our fight too."

"Do you even know where he is?" Rhodey contested, irritated.

"I know people who might." Danvers replied, optimistic.

"Don't bother." Nebula said from the doorway. "I can tell you where Thanos is. Thanos spent a long time trying to perfect me. Then when he worked, he talked about his great plan. Even disassembled, I wanted to please him. I'd ask, "where would we go once his plan was complete?". His answer was always the same: To the Garden."

"That's cute." Rhodey scoffed. "Thanos has a retirement plan."

"So where is he then?" Steve asked.

"Rocket, show them." Nebula said, and Rocket nodded before leaping up onto the table.

"When Thanos snapped his fingers, Earth became ground zero for a power surge of ridiculously cosmic proportions." Rocket said, a hologram of Earth appearing above the table. "No one's ever seen anything like it… Until two days ago."

The hologram shifted, showing another planet with a shockwave traversing the surface. "On this planet."

"Thanos is there." Nebula confirmed.

"He used the stones again." Natasha said, inspecting the hologram.

"Hey, hey, we'd be going in short-handed, you know." Bruce cautioned.

"Look, he's still got the stones, so…" Rhodey added.

"So let's get him." Danvers suggested, "We'll use them to bring everyone back."

"Just like that?" Rhodey questioned.

"Yea, Just like that." Steve said.

"Even if there's a small chance that we can undo this," Natasha said, "I mean we owe it to everyone who's not in this room to try."

My mind raced with the thought of having (Y/N) back with me, holding her again, being able to tell her how much I loved her. My heart ached for the chance, for the idea of being able to rectify the grave wrong.

"If we do this, how do we know it's gonna end any differently than it did before?" Bruce countered.

"Because before, you didn't have me." Danvers explained, her composure cool and collected.

"Hey, new girl, everyone here is about that superhero life. Even the ex-villain over here." Rhodey said, gesturing over to me. "And if you don't mind my asking, where the hell have you been all this time?"

"There are a lot of other planets in the universe." She replied, "And unfortunately, they didn't have you guys."

Thor rose from his bench, walking over to face Danvers. He held his hand up to summon Stormbreaker, and it flew across the room, soaring into his hands and missed Danver's face by mere inches. She didn't flinch, and instead smirked at my brother with a knowing look.

"I like this one." Thor said, finishing the roll he had been eating earlier.

"Let's go get this son of a bitch." Steve said, nodding.


	5. Chapter 4

We all prepared as quickly as possible for the trip ahead. Bruce and Rocket prepared the Benatar for flight, repairing and refueling. When all the appropriate repairs had been made, we all loaded into the ship and strapped into our seats.

"Okay, who here hasn't been to space?" Rocket queried, glancing behind him.

Natasha, Steve, and Rhodey all raised their hands slowly.

"Why?" Rhodey asked.

"You better not throw up on my ship." Rocket replied.

The ship exited Earth's atmosphere, and Rocket began pressing buttons and adjusting our trajectory.

"Approaching jump in three…" Nebula began, and the space travel newcomers gripped their seats tightly. "Two, one."

The ship lurched forward into the wormhole, and Steve gripped his seat for dear life. Though the trip itself lasted only seconds, he seemed to have felt every mile we had traveled. We stopped in orbit of the planet that Thanos resided on, it's unassuming surface giving no clues to the Titan's whereabouts.

"I'll head down for ground recon." Danver said as she hovered next to the ship.

"This is gonna work, Steve." Natasha said as we began to prepare ourselves.

"I know it will." Steve said, holding a compass in his hand, looking at it almost longingly. "Because I don't know what I'm going to do if it doesn't."

Danvers soon returned to the Benatar, a confused expression on her face. "No satellites, no ships, no armies, no ground defenses of any kind. It's just him."

"Then that's enough." Nebula said.

When we arrived on the surface, we stayed a reasonable distance from Thanos' dwelling to come up with a plan of attack.

"I'll go in first." Danver said, "He never encountered me before, so there's no way he'll be able to anticipate it. You guys will help me hold him down and get the gauntlet.

"Sounds like a plan." Steve said, "What are we waiting for?"

"Be wary." I said, "He may already know we are here."

Nodding, Danvers flew to the hut, crashing through the roof to tackle Thanos. She held him in a headlock as Bruce burst threw the ground, grabbing Thanos' left arm. I materialized in front of him, holding one of my knives to his neck as Thor threw Stormbreaker directly at Thanos' arm, slicing the gauntlet clean off. Rhodey flew in with Rocket on his back, both aiming their weapons at the Titan's head.

Steve walked into the hug, Natasha following, both staring murderously at Thanos. Rocket hopped off of Rhodey, and walked over to the Infinity Gauntlet, kicking it over. As it turned, Natasha gasped as it was revealed to have no stones inside it. My stomach dropped through the floor, knowing that Thanos had rid himself of the stones so they could not be found.

"Oh no." Rocket breathed, sadness saturating his voice.

"Where are they?" Steve questioned sternly.

"Answer the question!" Danvers demanded angrily, tightening her grip.

"The universe require correction." Thanos said, "After that, the stones served no purpose, beyond temptation."

"You murdered trillions!" Bruce bellowed from inside the Hulkbuster armour, shoving Thanos to the ground.

"You should be grateful." Thanos snapped back, breathing heavily. "And for you," he continued, gesturing to me, "It's a cruel irony that despite all of your disobedience, all of your refusal to destroy as you were told in New York, you continue to live on through all of the universe's correction."

"Cruel or not, you will pay for what you've done." I responded, only to be met with a chuckle.

"So brave, now that you have no fear of my retribution. Not at all how I remember you before I sent you to New York to collect the stones." Thanos said, grinning weakly. "Would you still act this way if I held the stones in my hand? Would you taunt me so if you knew that your punishment were to come from my hand, as it did once before?"

"I have paid, and continue to pay, dearly for my misdeeds." I said, swallowing the lump that had formed in my throat. "You still must answer for your crimes. _You _must give up where they are."

I continued to keep my knife trained on his neck, noticing how burnt and destroyed his left side appeared. His arm had atrophied, the skin on his face burnt and blistered severely. The after-effects of the snap had not been kind to him, as strong as he might be.

"Where are the stones?" Natasha pressed.

"Gone." Thanos answered with a smirk. "Reduced to atoms."

"You used them two days ago!" Bruce hollered.

"I used the stones to destroy the stones." Thanos clarified. "It nearly killed me. But the work is done. It always will be. I am inevitable."

"We have to tear this place apart." Rhodey said, looking around, "He, he, he has to be lying."

"My father is many things." Nebula said calmly. "A liar is not one of them."

"Thank you, daughter." Thanos breathed. "Perhaps, I treated you too harshly-"

Thanos' statement was abruptly brought to an end as Stormbreaker sliced his head from his shoulders. As Thanos' body limply fell to the floor, Nebula wiped gore from her face. After staring for an uncomfortable amount of time, Rocket balked.

"What, what did you do?" The racoon asked.

Thor turned, Stormbreaker returned to his hand. His face had fallen, his expression bleak and hopeless. "I went for the head."

Without another word, Thor turned and shuffled out of the hut, his defeat dragging down his every step. My brother bore the weight of worlds on his shoulders, and he doubtless now felt that he had failed every single one of them.


	6. Chapter 5

In the years that followed, the rest of our people returned to us. Thor was still inconsolable, and I took up the brief responsibility of choosing a place to begin New Asgard. It took little time to decide on the area in Norway where we had last seen Odin before he died. After five years had passed, Earth had settled into its new normal. Entire areas sat abandoned, but people continued to live on.

Thor refused all of my offerings of help. I couldn't even imagine the pain he felt, believing that he was the only reason that Thanos had not been stopped. I had hoped that living in New Asgard for a time would help him recover, and in the meantime Thor opted to live in a smaller building, settling in with Korg and Meik as his companions. Leaving Val in charge of things for Thor, I spent much of my time surveying the areas of the Cosmos I could for the remaining Avengers.

While I was given the option of calling in via hologram, I often preferred to just come in person. I remained close to earth so Thor could call me should he have any need, so it was no great effort on my end to come in person.

One of these meetings was particularly tense. Natasha had made herself a sandwich after hearing my debrief, and Rocket began his.

"Yea, we boarded that highly suspect warship that Danvers pinged." Rocket said, gesturing over to Danver's hologram.

"It was an infectious garbage scowl." Nebula continued.

"So, thanks for the hot tip." Rocket said, irritated.

"Well," Danvers sighed, "You were closer."

"Yea." Rocket agreed. "And we smell like garbage."

Turning to Okoye, Natasha feigned a smile. "You get a reading on those tremors?"

"It was a mild subduction under the African plate." Okoye stated plainly.

"Do we have a visual?" Natasha asked, "How are we handling it?"

"Nat, it's an _earthquake_ under the _ocean_." Okoye said, "We handle it, by _not handling it_."

"Carol," Natasha said, trying to change the subject. "Are we seeing you here next month?"

"Not likely." Danvers answered.

"What, are you gonna get a new haircut?" Rocket snarked, gesturing to her now close-cropped hair.

"Listen, fur-face. I'm covering a lot of territory." Danvers snapped. "The things that are happening on Earth, are happening everywhere, on thousands of planets. Loki and I can't do everything ourselves, but we're making do with what we have."

"You got a point." Rocket mumbled, "You've got a point."

"So, you might not see me for a long time." Danvers continued to Natasha.

"Alright. Uh, well. This channel is always active." Natasha said, "So, if anything goes sideways… anyone's making trouble where they shouldn't… it comes through me."

"Okay." Rocket said.

"Alright." Natasha finished, as the other Avengers cut their calls off one by one.

"Good luck." Danvers said, offering a half-smile before cutting off her own call.

Rhodey alone remained, watching as Natasha sat down with a heavy sigh.

"Where are you?" She asked him.

"Mexico." He answered. "The federales found a room filled with bodies. Looks like a bunch of cartel guys. Never even had the chance to get their guns off."

"It's probably a rival gang." Natasha defended, the topic setting her on edge.

"Except it isn't." Rhodey countered, causing Natasha's face to fall. "It's definitely Barton. What he's done here, what he's been doing for the last few years… I mean, the scene that he left… I gotta tell you, there's a part of me that doesn't even want to find him."

Natasha took a small bite of her sandwich, tears welling in her eyes, and emotion choking her voice. "Will you find out where he's going next?"

"Nat."

"Please." she insisted, holding back her tears as best she could.

"Okay." Rhodey resigned reluctantly. His hologram call cut off, and Natasha let her tears fall more freely.

"I'm sorry." I said, unsure of what else to say.

"We've all got a little bit of red in our ledgers." She whispered, looking up to me with a wry smile. "Some of us have more than others, and just want to help others blot theirs out."

"I'd offer to cook you dinner, but you seem pretty miserable already." Steve tried to joke, coming in the room.

"Here to do your laundry?" Natasha smiled, picking at her sandwich.

"To see friends." Steve replied warmly.

"Clearly, this friend is fine." She said, trying to swallow her emotion.

"You know, I saw a pod of whales when I was coming up the bridge." Steve said, hoping to change the subject.

"In the Hudson?" she replied, seemingly surprised.

"There's fewer ships." Steve explained, "Cleaner water."

"You know, if you're about to tell me to look on the bright side." she said, trying to laugh. "I'm about to hit you in the head with a peanut butter sandwich."

"Sorry." Steve smiled, "Force of habit." he threw his jacket down, and pulled up a chair to join Natasha and I.

"You know, I keep telling everyone they should move on and… grow." he continued. "Some do. But not us."

"If I move on, who does this?" She asked, gesturing to the empty holo-call panels.

"Maybe it doesn't need to be done." Steve suggested gently.

"I used to have nothing." She said shakily, "Then I got this. This job… this family. And I was… I was better because of it. And even though… they're gone… I'm still trying to be better."

"We all need to get a life." Steve sighed.

"You first." She countered, smiling.

The desk in front of us beeped, throwing up camera footage of a man with an old van behind him.

"Uh… Oh! Hi. Hi! Is anyone home? This is Scott Lang." The man said, flustered. "We met a few years ago, at the airport? In Germany? I got really big, and I had my mask on. You wouldn't recognize me."

As Lang continued, my mind connected the fact that the man on the screen was one of the Avengers that had been listed as missing after the snap. Steve and I stood up at the same time, Natasha following suit.

"Is this an old message?" Steve asked, hope swelling up in his voice.

"It's the front gate." Natasha said, taken aback.

"I'll be right back." I said, teleporting to the front gate. I grabbed Lang by the shoulder, and then teleported back into the room where Steve and Natasha stood.

"Whoa, dude, warn me next time." Lang said, stumbling once we arrived.

"Sorry." I said, "I forget that people cannot always adjust to transportation so quickly."

"Scott." Steve said, walking up to Lang, who was now pacing. "Are you okay?"

"Yea, I'm fine." Scott said, still pacing. "Have any of you ever studied Quantum Physics?"

"Only to make conversation." Natasha joked, confused.

"Alright. So... five years ago, right before Thanos, I was in a place called the Quantum Realm. The Quantum Realm is like its own microscopic universe." Scott explained, walking from one end of the room to the other. "To get in there, you have to be incredibly small. Hope, she's my... She was my…" he seemed to struggle to find the words, but settled on beginning a new sentence. "She was supposed to pull me out. And then Thanos happened, and I got stuck in there."

"I'm sorry." Natasha said, "That must have been a very long five years."

"Yeah, but that's just it." Scott said, "For me, it was five hours."

"How does that even work?" I asked, taken aback.

"See, the rules of the Quantum Realm aren't like they are up here." Scott continued, "Everything is unpredictable. Is that anybody's sandwich? I'm starving!" He finished, taking a bite of the sandwich.

"Scott, what are you talking about?" Steve asked.

"What I'm saying is, time works differently in the Quantum Realm. The only problem is right now, we don't have a way to navigate it. But what if we did? I can't stop thinking about it." Scott said, continuing to finish the sandwich. "What if there was a way to enter the Quantum Realm at a certain point in time, but then exit at another point in time? Like… Like before Thanos."

"Wait, are you talking about a time machine?" Steve asked, disbelieving.

"No. No, of course not." Scott clarified. "No, not a time machine. It's more like a… Yeah, a time machine. I know it's crazy. But I can't stop thinking about it, there's gotta be some way…. No it's crazy."

"I get e-mails from a raccoon, so nothing sounds crazy anymore." Natasha said.

"So who do we talk to about this?" Scott asked.

Nat and Steve shared a look, and I sighed.

"Stark." I said.


	7. Chapter 6

We all got ready and got into a car to drive to Stark's house. Since he had recovered from his misadventure, he had moved out of the city to a beautiful cabin set on the edge of a lake. When we had arrived, Tony was carrying his daughter to the house. His sigh was audible from across the yard.

"Now, we know what it sounds like…" Scott said, having divulged his plan to Tony.

"Tony, after everything you've seen, is anything really impossible?" Steve asked.

"I mean, it still boggles my mind that this character is on our side now," Tony said, passing a drink to me. "No offense."

"None taken." I said, taking one, and handing another to Steve.

"But that disbelief can only go so far. Quantum fluctuation messes with the Planck scale, which then triggers the Deutsch proposition. Can we agree on that?" Tony said, sipping his own drink. "In layman's terms, it means you're not coming home."

"I did." Scott countered.

"No, you accidentally survived." Tony clarified, "It's a billion to one cosmic fluke. And now you wanna pull off a… What do you call it?"

"A time heist?" Scott said, his tone trying to mask his pride.

"Yea a time heist. Of course, why didn't we think of this before?" Tony mused. "Oh, because it's laughable? Because it's a pipedream?"

"The stones are in the past. We can go back and get them!" Scott pleaded.

"We can snap our own fingers." Natasha added, "We can bring everyone back."

"Or screw it up worse than he already has, right?" Tony countered.

"I don't believe that we would." Steve said firmly.

"Gotta say, sometimes I miss that giddy optimism." Tony said. "However, high hopes won't help if there's no logical, tangible way for me to safely execute said _time heist._ I believe the most likely outcome would be our collective demise."

"Not if we strictly follow the rules of time travel." Scott said, "That means no talking to our past selves, no betting on sporting events-"

"I'm gonna stop you right there, Scott." Tony said, "Are you seriously telling me that your plan to save the universe is based on _Back To The Future_?"

Blushing, Scott squirmed in his chair. "No…"

"Good. You had me worried there." Tony replied. "Cause that'd be horse shit. That's not how quantum physics works."

"Tony…" Natasha said, "We have to take a stand."

"We did stand." Tony answered. "And yet, here we are."

"I know you got a lot on the line." Scott said, "You got a wife, a daughter. But I lost someone very important to me. A lot of people did. And now, now we have a chance to bring her back. Bring everyone back. And you're telling me that won't even…"

"That's right, Scott." Tony snapped back. "I won't. Even. Got a kid."

As he spoke, his daughter ran up to him, and Tony gathered her up into his arms.

"Mommy told me to come and save you." She said into his chest.

"Good job." He praised. "I'm saved." Turning to us, he sighed. "I wish you'd come here to ask me for something else. Anything else. Honestly, I… I missed you guys. It was… It's been a long time. The table's set for six."

"Tony, I get it." Steve said, "I'm happy for you, I really am. But this is a second chance."

"I got my second chance right here, Cap." Tony said, hefting his daughter higher up against his chest. "I can't roll the dice again. If you don't talk shop, you all can stay for lunch."

Tony walked into his home, leaving us sitting on the porch. Tony's words echoed in my head, bringing me back to thoughts about my own second chance. I had my life turned around, only to lose the one who meant the most to me, the one responsible for my newly chartered life-course. My second chance, my only chance, was ahead of me.

"He's scared." Natasha said as we walked back to the car.

"He's not wrong." Steve replied.

"Yeah, but I mean, what are we gonna do?" Scott said, "We need him. What, are we gonna stop."

"No, I wanna do it right." Steve confirmed. "We're gonna need a really big brain."

"Bigger than his?" Scott said, confused.

"Quantum Physics isn't really his thing, Steve." Natasha said.

"It might be now." Steve answered, rolling away from Tony's home.

After a few phone calls, we agreed to meet Bruce at a local cafe. When we arrived, I was met with an uncomfortable reality. Bruce banner sat before us, but… he was distinctly more… hulkish. While not as simple as hulk had been when I first had encountered him, he was also not completely Bruce Banner anymore, and it made for an interesting mix.

"Come on, I feel like I'm the only one eating!" Bruce said, pushing a plate forwards towards Natasha. "Try some of that, have some eggs."

"I'm so confused." Scott said.

"You're not the only one." I added, fidgeting in my seat.

"These are confusing times." Bruce answered.

"Right. No, no, that's not what I meant." Scott said.

"No, I get it." Bruce said, dropping his serious tone. "I'm kidding! I know. It's crazy. I'm wearing shirts now."

"Yea! How? Why?" Scott asked.

"Five years ago, we got our asses beat." Bruce explained, "Except it was worse for me. Because I lost twice. First, Hulk lost, then Banner lost. Then, we all lost."

"No one blamed you, Bruce." Natasha said.

"I did." Banner said. "For years, I've been treating the Hulk like he's some kind of disease, something to get rid of. But then I started looking at him as the cure. Eighteen months in a gamma lab. I put the brains, and the brawn, together. And now look at me. Best of both worlds…"

Bruce's speech was interrupted by a few younger fans, tentatively walking up to him and quietly asking him a question.

"Excuse me, Mr. Hulk?" the girl asked.

"Yes?" Bruce answered, smiling.

"Can we get a photo?"

"100%, little person. Come on, step up." Bruce gestured for the kids to come closer, passing their phone to Scott to take the photo. "You mind?"

"Oh, no." Scott fumbled, stretching to try to take the photo.

"Say, 'Green!'" Bruce said, smiling to the camera. "Did you get that?" Bruce asked.

"Don't you wanna grab one with me?" Scot asked, handing the phone back, I'm Ant-Man." after a long pause, Scott smiled awkwardly. "They're Hulk fans, they don't know Ant-Man, nobody does."

"Wait no no, he feels bad." Bruce said, gesturing to one of the boys. "He wants you to, he wants to… You want to take a picture with him, right?"

The boy shook his head vigorously, the girl giggling uncomfortably.

"He's even saying that he doesn't. I get it." Scott said, miffed. "I don't want it either."

"But come on, the kid!" Bruce insisted. "But he… but you…"

"Just take the goddamn phone." Scott said, practically tossing the phone at Bruce.

"Thank you, Mr. Hulk." the girl said.

"No, it's great kids. Thank you very much." Bruce said. "Hulk out!"

"Bruce." Steve said, hoping to steer the conversation back to its intended end.

"Dab!" Bruce called after them, causing me to roll my eyes.

"Bruce." Steve repeated.

"Listen to your mom." Bruce said, "She knows better."

"About what we were saying…" Steve insisted.

"Right. The Hulk time travel do-over?" Banner said, refocusing his attention to our table. "Guys, it's outside my area of expertise."

"Well, you pulled this off." I said, gesturing to him.

"I remember a time when that seemed pretty impossible, too." Natasha added.

Banner sighed. "Do we even have a facility, or a lab?"

"We've got the next best thing, an entire compound that's sitting empty." Steve said.

"Will you help us?" Natasha asked.

"Of course." Bruce said. "Whatever it takes."


	8. Chapter 7

The next day, Bruce began writing out his scientific theory behind the Quantum Time Travel idea. We began setting up Scott's van in the largest hangar space of the compound, hooking the vehicle's Quantum tunnel up to the backup generators with care.

Scott put his Ant-Man uniform on, opening up the back of the van and revealing the Quantum tunnel.

"Okay, here we go." Bruce said, "Time travel test number one. Scott, fire up the uhhh… the van thing."

"Breakers are set, emergency generators are on standby." Steve said, walking up to Bruce.

"Good." Bruce responded. "Cause if we blow the grid, I don't want to lose tiny here in the 1950s."

We all stared at Bruce, slightly panicked.

"Excuse me?" Scott called out.

"He's kidding." Natasha said, then turning to Bruce. "You can't say things like that!"

"Just… It was a bad joke." Bruce laughed, trying to amend the situation.

"You were kidding, right?" Natasha whispered to Bruce.

"I have no idea." Bruce answered. "We're talking about time travel here. Either it's all a joke, or none of it is." Bruce turned and pressed a few buttons, prepping the tunnel to begin. "We're good! Get your helmet on, Scott. I'm gonna send you back a week, let you walk around for an hour, then bring you back in 10 seconds. Make sense?"

"Perfectly not confusing." Scott said, throwing up a thumbs-up.

"Good luck, Scott." Steve said, "You've got this."

"You're right." Scott agreed, "I do, Captain America."

"On the count of three." Bruce announced. "Three… Two… One!"

Bruce pressed a button, and Scott disappeared into the Quantum Tunnel. The seconds past, and Bruce then pressed the same button again, bringing the Ant-man suit back…. With a teenager inside.

"Uh, guys?" the boy said. "This, this doesn't feel right."

"What is this?"

"What's going on?" I asked, concerned.

"That… who is that?" Natasha asked.

Bruce began to press more buttons, "Hold on."

"Is that Scott?" Natasha pressed.

"Yes, it's Scott!" The teenager replied, voice cracking.

Bruce pressed another button, and he was sucked into the quantum tunnel once more. When Bruce next pressed the button, an elderly man appeared in the suit instead.

"Ow! My Back!"

"Can I get a little space here?" Bruce said, stressing out.

"Can you bring him back?" Steve asked, looking over.

"I'm working on it!" Bruce said.

After another moment, old Scott was sucked back into the tunnel, and this time, a baby appears in the Ant-Man suit.

"It's a baby." I said, confused and concerned.

"It's Scott." Bruce clarified.

"As a baby!" Steve stressed.

"He'll grow!" Bruce countered.

"Bring Scott back."

"When I say kill the power, kill the power." Bruce said, and Natasha nodded.

"Oh my God." Natasha groaned.

I stood by Bruce, producing a translucent shield to protect Steve, Natasha, Bruce, and myself from any adverse effects from the emergency shutdown.

"And… Kill it!" Bruce shouted, and Nat pulled a lever, shutting everything down.

The normal Scott was spewed back out of the Quantum tunnel, panting.

"Somebody peed my pants." He said stiffly. "But I don't know if it was "baby" me, or "old" me… Or just "me" me."

Bruce opened his arms up, smiling. "Time Travel!"

Steve walked away, and I followed him.

"What?" Bruce called out, "I see this as an absolute win!"

Following Steve out of the compound, I found him staring at the floor, deep in thought. His facial expression betrayed his weariness, the age of the man out of time wearing at him.

"What do we do now?" Steve said. "How do we fix it now?"

"I don't know." I said. "But I do know that we'll manage, somehow."

"Never thought I'd be having a conversation with you about how to save the universe." Steve laughed to himself.

"I never thought I'd be speaking to any of you on such friendly terms." I admitted. "When (Y/N) snuck into my base back in 2012, I had no way of knowing that this was how things would turn out. There are so many choices I could have made, should have made, that would have prevented this from happening. I could have left right then and there with either of the infinity gems, I could have never opened the portal in the first place so that Thanos would never have known about you. After the things I did, regardless of the motivations that pushed me there, I don't deserve any kindness, much less the friendship you've shown me." I sighed, biting down the emotion welling up in my throat. "But all the reminiscing in the world is for naught. In the end I'm left with nothing but the belief, the desperate hope, that this isn't how it's going to end. I refuse to accept that. (Y/N) deserves better. Everyone does."

"Loki, listen." Steve said, turning to face me. "We all make choices that we're less than happy with. What matters is what we do when we realize those bad choices were mistakes. I know that we obviously never got off on the right foot years ago, for good or bad reasons, it doesn't matter. But what I do know, is that I'm glad you're here now. You're a part of the team, and I know I'm not the only one that feels like that. You've grown, and that's all anyone could ask of you. I'm glad to have you by my side when it gets tough. And it's going to."

"Thank you." I whispered, the lump in my throat threatening to choke me. "I- I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to." Steve smiled. Steve reached out, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and giving me a brief squeeze. "We'll work everything out, somehow."

An engine revving in the distance distracted us for a moment. An Audi sports car pulled up to where we stood, rolling a bit too far before reversing to where Steve was standing. Tony rolled down the window, looking up at Steve.

"Why the long face?" Tony mused. "Let me guess: He turned into a baby."

"Among other things, yeah." Steve answered. "What are you doing here?"

"That's the EPR paradox." Tony responded, getting out and walking around to the back of his car. "Instead of pushing Lang through time, you wound up pushing time through Lang. It's tricky. Dangerous. Somebody shoulda cautioned you against it."

"You did." Steve admitted.

"Oh, did I?" Tony said, "Thank God I'm here. Regardless, I fixed it." Tony held up a hand, a small electronic device wrapped around it. "A Fully functioning Time-Space GPS. I just want peace. Turns out, resentment is corrosive, and I hate it."

"Me too." Steve agreed.

"We got a shot at getting these stones, but I gotta tell you my priorities: Bring back what we lost? I hope, yes." Tony said. "Keep what I got? I have to, at all costs. And… maybe not die trying would be nice."

"Sounds like a deal." Steve said, reaching out to shake Tony's hand.

Tony shook Steve's hand. He then reached into his trunk to pull something out, revealing Steve's shield. Tony tried to pass it to Steve, but Steve hesitated to take it.

"Tony… I…"

"Why? He made it for you." Tony said, passing it to Steve. "Plus, honestly, I have to get it out of the garage before Morgan takes it sledding."

Steve slid his arm into the shield, smiling. "Thank you, Tony."

"Will you keep that quiet?" Tony whispered, "Didn't bring one for the whole team…. We are getting the whole team, yeah? Plus reindeer games?"

"We're working on that right now."


	9. Chapter 8

"If you guys wanted to grab lunch, Bruce and Scott were making tacos in the kitchen." Natasha said, when we met her inside. "I just put out the call to everyone to come in. Okoye has to stay in Wakanda to keep things running, and I don't know if Danvers is going to even get our message, but everyone else is on their way right now."

"Do we have any other way of getting Danvers here faster?" Tony asked.

"We don't know specifically where she is, so no." Natasha sighed.

The ground rumbled, and a glance out the panel windows confirmed that Rocket and Nebula had arrived. The Benatar landed next to the building, Scott sitting on a bench and staring in awe at the spaceship.

Rocket and Scott shared a brief exchange, and Rocket came inside to find Bruce and myself. As we exited to get into the Benatar, Rhodes arrived, startling Scott into dropping his taco all over the sidewalk.

"What's up, regular-sized man?" Rhodey joked, turning to walk into the building.

Bruce passed Scott a few tacos from his own lunch as we boarded the ship, leaving Scott looking both puzzled and thankful.

"Where are we headed?" Bruce asked.

"We're going to get Thor." Rocket answered. "I called Val to tell him to come, but she was saying it's going to be more difficult than that. That's why you two are coming with."

This news unsettled me. I had instructed both Thor and Val to contact me if anything went awry, and I had heard nothing from either of them. I had presumed that Thor would leap at the chance to undo what had been done, especially considering what had happened in Wakanda. Had I been wrong about his willingness? Or was something else wrong?

Thoughts continued to spin in my head as we travelled to New Asgard. The Benatar landed outside its outskirts, and we rode in the back of a truck into the city limits.

As we all exited the vehicle, Rocket looked around.

"Kind of a step down from a golden palace and whatnot." Rocket mumbled.

"Have a little compassion, pal." Bruce interjected before I could respond. "First, they've lost Asgard, then half their people. They're probably just happy to have a home to live in."

"You shouldn't have come!" Val called out to us, looking directly at me.

"Aahhh Valkyrie!" Bruce answered, smiling. "Great to see you, Angry Girl!"

Val raised an eyebrow, looking Bruce up and down. "I think I liked you better either of the other ways."

"This is Rocket." Bruce said, trying to shift the subject.

"You you doin'?" Rocket nodded.

"He won't see you." Val continued. "I told you that."

"What happened?" I asked, "Why won't he see us?"

"He's holed up in his place, never comes out." She answered. "Nothing threatening was happening, and I know you had important stuff to do. I was managing on my own alright, didn't want to needlessly bother you."

"That bad, huh?" Bruce asked.

"We only see him once a month, when he comes for…" She glanced over to a large pile of beer kegs on the side of the pier, "...supplies."

"It's that bad." Rocket sighed.

"Yea." Rocket agreed.

"Let's get my brother out of here." I said, "We have people to save."

We walked over to my brother's home, Rocket pushing open the front door. We all grimaced at the smell that wafted from the house's interior.

"What the…" Bruce said, confused.

"Whoo!" Rocket said, waving his hand in front of his face. "Something died in here. Hello?"

"Thor?" I called out, my concern rising.

"Are you here about the cable?" Thor called out from a separate room.

Thor slowly walked into view, and my worst hopes for him fell through the floorboards as I saw him. He was walking around shirtless, and had gained an incredible amount of weight since I had been in last. He had obviously leaned heavily into drinking to cope, and the scent of alcohol clung to him.

"The cinemax ran out two weeks ago, and the sports were all kind of fuzzy." Thor mumbled, turning to face us, finally noticing who we were. "Boys, brother! Oh my God! How have you been?" Thor leaned to try to hug Rocket, "Come here you little rascal!"

"No, I'm good. I'm good." Rocket said, pushing away. "That's not necessary."

"Hulk, you know my friends, Miek, Korg, right?" Thor gestured to the duo sitting on the sofa, playing video games whilst they ate chips.

"Hey, long time no see!" Bruce waved to them.

"Hey guys." Korg waved back. "Beer's on the bucket. Feel free to log onto the Wi-Fi. No password, obviously." After a pause, he looked to Thor. "Thor, he's back, the kid on the TV. He called me a dickhead again."

"Noobmaster?" Thor slurred.

"Yea, Noobmaster69." Korg confirmed, handing Thor the headphones.

As Thor went off on the other player, I sighed. While Thor had always been a happy drunk, I knew that this was nothing more than him trying to escape from everything that had happened. Not that I had been much different. I chose to stay busy to distract myself, and he had chosen to drown his sorrows with drink. I wished that I had realized sooner, perhaps I could have prevented his decline. I had initially left because he had said that he didn't want to talk, he didn't want to even interact with me much. Perhaps more insistence from me would have helped him through it...

Thor handed the headphones back to Korg before turning back to us. "So, do you guys want a drink? What are you drinking? We have beer, tequila, all sorts of things."

Thor picked up a beer, removing the cap with Stormbreaker's edge. I came up to him, placing my hands on his shoulders firmly.

"Buddy, you alright?" Bruce asked, placing his hand on Thor's shoulder.

"I'm fine!" Thor insisted between gulps, "Why, don't I look alright?"

"You look like melted ice cream." Rocket said, rolling his eyes.

Thor laughed, taking another drink. "So, what's up?"

"We need your help." Bruce said, trying to calmly get through my brother's drunken stupor. "There might be a chance that we could fix everything."

"What, like the cable?" Thor asked with a belch. "Cause that's been driving me bananas for weeks."

"Like Thanos." Bruce said softly.

Thor's face darkened instantly, the smile gone from his face. Thor placed a shaky hand on Bruce's shoulder and pointed at him, beer bottle still in his hand.

"Don't you say that name." Thor slurred.

Korg stood, removing his headphones. "Um, yea. We don't actually say that name in here."

"Please, take your hand off me." Bruce said, removing Thor's hand gently. "Now, I know that… guy… might scare you."

"Why would I be? Why would, why would I be scared of that guy? I'm the one who killed that guy, remember? Anyone else here killed that guy?" Thor said, his emotions fighting to be acknowledged. "Nope. Didn't think so. Korg, why don't you, tell everybody who chopped Thanos' big head off."

"Umm, Stormbreaker?" Korg answered, unsure.

"Now, who was swinging Stormbreaker?" Thor continued.

"I get it. You're in a rough spot, okay? I've been there myself." Bruce said, gently trying to break through the wall Thor had built up. "You wanna know who helped me out of it?"

"I don't know." Thor mused, smiling. "Is it… Natasha?"

"It was you." Bruce answered. "You helped me"

Thor walked over to a window, pointing out through the dirty glass. "Why don't you ask the, Asgardians down there, how much my help was worth." He sighed, sitting onto a chair. "The ones that are left, anyway."

"I think we can bring them back." Bruce said.

"Stop. Just, stop…" Thor said, reaching for a snack. "I know you think I'm down here wallowing in my own self-pity, waiting to be rescued and saved. But I'm fine okay? We're fine, aren't we?"

"All good here, mate!" Korg replied, waving.

"So, whatever it is that you're offering, we're not into it, don't care couldn't care less." Thor said, finishing off his bottle. "Goodbye."

Unable to bear it any longer, I broke my silence.

"But you're not fine! Look at yourself, brother." I said, my voice raised. "I know as well as anyone what it's like to lose everyone, to feel like you've failed everyone you've ever cared about." I bit my tongue, lowering my voice as my own emotions began to influence my words.

"To _know_ that you've failed them, that _you're_ the reason they're gone." I almost whispered, my throat tight.

"There is nothing I would want more than to be able to run away from my duties. I tried to. To run away from the fact that nearly my entire family was stolen from me, and that I'm the one to blame for all of it!" I shouted, hot tears streaming down my face as Thor continued to look down at the ground and his empty hands. "I'm sorry that I wasn't there. I'm sorry that I couldn't fix everything, no matter how hard I may have tried. I'm sorry that I was too wrapped up in my own selfish interests to help you when you needed it most. But I'm trying to fix that now, and I need you to let me! I can't lose the only family I have left! I can't lose you the way that I lost mother, the way that I lost (Y/N). The guilt of their deaths eats away at me every single day, and while I have no one to blame but myself for that, I refuse to let you throw yourself away like this. I need you, Thor, and I know that you need me too."

I stepped back, trying to compose myself. "I want to be better, I want to do what's right. All I'm asking is that you come along with me. I need you."

"We all need you, pal." Bruce added softly.

Thor sighed heavily, grabbing a few beers and standing up.

"What's our plan?"


	10. Chapter 9

When we arrived back at the Avengers Compound, Tony was already hard at work assembling the Quantum Tunnel that we would need for our "Time Heist". Bruce and Rocket quickly went to work helping, and its assembly did not take long after they had began.

Thor and I came to take a look at it, and Tony was dragging a cart full of material through the room to the Tunnel.

"Drifting left." Tony warned, walking around Thor and I. "On the side there, Lebowski. How's it going, Ratchet?"

"It's Rocket." The raccoon insisted as he tightened down some bolts. "Take it easy, you're only a genius on Earth, pal."

"Well we're trying to test this sucker out today, so I want to finish." Tony prodded in return. "You almost done?"

"Yeah." Rocket sighed. "Woulda been done earlier if jolly green giant hadn't ditched to go work on ant-guy's suit."

"I hope this works." I mumbled, not intending anyone to hear me.

"Me too." Tony agreed.

A few hours later, Barton walked onto the Tunnel's platform in his Quantum Suit. Most of us had gathered around to watch, but Thor had chosen to remain uninvolved for the time being.

"Clint, now you're gonna feel a little discombobulated from the chronoshift." Bruce warned, prepping the tunnel to activate. "Don't worry about it."

Clint nodded, taking his place.

"Alright, Clint." Bruce said, "We're going in three… two… one!"

A helmet that resembled Scott's popped into place on Clint's head, and he promptly disappeared through the tunnel. In a matter of seconds, Clint rematerialized on the glass platform, breathing heavily and laying face down.

"Hey, hey, look at me." Natasha said as she ran to him, assisting him in sitting up. "You okay?"

Barten held up a baseball glove with a small smile. "Yea, it worked. It worked."

"Now all that's left is to figure out where and when to get the stones." Tony laughed.

"Let's figure that out now." Steve said, "Everyone, to the conference room."

We all made our way to the conference room, my brother included. We all took our seats, and the screens above the table showed the images and information that they had about each of the infinity stones. Tony, Steve, and Bruce stood at the front of the table, taking the lead in organizing and planning.

"Okay, so the 'how' works. Now we gotta figure out the when and the where." Steve said. "Almost all of us have had an encounter with at least one of the six infinity stones."

"Well I'd substitute the word encounter for damn well near been killed by one of the six infinity stones." Tony proposed sarcastically.

"I haven't!" Scott pointed out, "I don't even know what the hell you're all talking about!"

"Regardless, we only have enough Pym Particles for one round trip each, and these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history." Bruce said, gesturing to the images of the stones.

"Our history." Tony clarified. "So, not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in."

"Which means we have to pick our targets." Clint added.

"Correct." Tony confirmed.

"Let's start with the Aether." Steve said. "Thor, Loki, what do you know?"

Thor did not rise from his spot in the corner, sunglasses shading his closed eyes.

"Is he asleep?" Natasha asked.

"No." Rhodey said rolling his eyes. "I'm pretty sure he's dead."

I groaned, nudging Thor to wake him, and reminded him of what we had to do.

"Where to start? Umm... The Aether, first, is not a stone, someone called it a stone before. It's more of a... and angry sludge thing, so... someones gonna need to amend that. Here's an interesting story though, many years ago...My grandfather had to hide the stones from the Dark Elves…" Thor wiggled his hands around, and I audibly sighed, closing my eyes. "Wooooh, scary beings. So Jane," He gestured to the screen as her photo appeared, "Oh, there she is. That's Jane... She's... an old flame of mine... She... she stuck her hand inside a rock this one time... and then the Aether stuck itself inside her... And, she became very, very sick. So I had to take her to Asgard, which is where I'm from. And we had to try and fix her. We were dating at the time, you see. I got to introduce her to my Mother... who's dead…" Thor trailed off, his broken emotions pushing their way through again, "and oh you know, Jane and I aren't even dating anymore, these things happen though you know, nothing last forever," Tony and I attempted to direct him back to his chair, and he brushed us both off, insisting that he finish his ranting. "I'm not done yet, the only thing permanent in life is impermanence."

Tony and I finally managed to stop Thor's continued rambling, Tony suggesting some breakfast for him.

"Awesome." Tony said, "Eggs?"

"No, I'd like a Bloody Mary, thank you." Thor grinned, causing me to roll my eyes.

"What I believe my brother meant to say is that the Aether is a volatile stone. It is not always in stone form, as he sort of explained, and in 2013 during my captivity in Odin's dungeons, his girlfriend Jane Foster became the Aether's host body, similar to the way that (Y/N) and Danvers host the Space Stone's power. Jane was kept in Asgard to help her during that time, so it would be best to retrieve the Aether from that time and place since Jane poses no great threat."

"Perfect." Tony said, "Thor, Rocket, you guys can get on that. What about the purple one?"

"Can we move into the lounge?" Thor mumbled, "These chairs aren't very comfortable."

"Quill said he stole the power stone from Morag." Rocket said as we all moved to the sofas and chairs.

"Is that a person?" Scott asked, beginning to eat the take-out that Natasha had ordered.

"Morag's a planet." Rocket clarified. "Quill was a person."

"A planet?" Scott asked, excited. "Like in outer space?"

"Oh, look. It's like a little puppy, all happy and everything." Rocket said, mocking Lang. "Do you wanna go to space? You wanna go to space, puppy? I'll take you to space."

After the meal had been finished, Natasha began writing down notes for our plan.

"Thanos found the Soul Stone on Vormir." Nebula said.

"What is Vormir?" Natasha asked, writing on her notepad.

"A dominion of death, at the very center of Celestial existence." Nebula continued. "It's where… Thanos murdered my sister."

Natasha wrote down what Nebula had said, and the room remained quiet for a moment.

"Not it." Scott said, intimidated by Nebula's description.

"What about the other three?" Steve asked. "When is the best point to grab those?"

"Are we even going to be able to get the Time stone?" Tony asked, "It took a lot to get Strange to give it up five years ago, and that was when people were being attacked right in front of him."

"I'm not sure." Steve trailed off.

One by one, people left to get some sleep. Eventually, only Tony, Natasha, Bruce, and myself remained to brainstorm.

"That Time Stone guy…" Natasha began.

"Doctor Strange." Bruce answered.

"Yeah, what kind of doctor was he?" She asked.

"Neurostuff meets rabbit from a hat." Tony replied. "Nice place in the village, though."

"Yeah. Sullivan Street." Bruce said, "Hmm… Bleeker."

"Wait, Strange lived in New York?" I asked, sitting upright.

"No, he lived in Toronto." Tony quipped.

"If we pick the right year, there are _three stones_ in New York." I said, "_Two_ of them in my posession."

"Shut the front door!" Bruce exclaimed, sitting up.

"But who goes to get which ones?" Tony asaked, "How do we divvy up the teams?"

"Bruce, you should get the time stone." I said, "You'll have the easiest time getting across New York during the battle. Tony and Scott should retrieve the Tesseract. Steve can grab the scepter from the shield agents, and I'll help him with that if needed. If it turns out that he doesn't need me, I'll come assist you and Scott."

"Do we really have it all planned out now?" Natasha asked, smiling. "We can do this in the morning?"

"It would appear so." I said, allowing myself a smile.

"Rest up, guys." Tony said, walking to his room in the Compound. "We've got a big day coming up."

As I walked to my room that night, I couldn't help smiling. We were so close, so ready to reach out and take what we had been working so hard to achieve. In the morning we would be able to rectify and resolve the past five years of struggle.

My dreams intensified my joy, for the first time in years they might be a possibility. Even in the five years since the snap, my mind had never lost a bit of (Y/N). I could envision her perfectly, from the way her hair fell in her face when she was reading, to the way she would smirk before giving a smart remark. I dreamed of reuniting with her, and for the first time in years, I slept soundly.

In the morning, we all gathered and prepared to complete our mission. We all dressed in our Quantum suits, walking up to the Tunnel platform.

"Alright. We have a plan. Six stones, three teams. One shot." Steve said as Bruce finished prepping the Tunnel for our trip. "Five years ago, we lost. All of us. We lost friends… We lost family… We lost a part of ourselves. Today, we have a chance to take it all back. You know your teams, you know your missions. Get the stones, get them back. One round trip each. No mistakes, no do-overs. Most of us are going somewhere we know, but it doesn't mean we should know what to expect. Be careful. Look out for each other. This is the fight of our lives. And we're gonna win."

Tony shot Steve a knowing look, smiling.

"Whatever it takes." Steve continued. "Good luck."

"He's pretty good at that." Rocket observed.

"Right?" Scott agreed, smiling.

"All right. You heard the man." Tony said. "Stroke those keys, jolly green."

"Tractors engaged." Bruce said.

Rocket gestured to the shrunk Benatar that rested in Clint's hand. "You promise to bring that back in one piece, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah." Clint nodded, "Ok. I'll do my best."

"As far as promises go, that was pretty lame." Rocket grumbled.

Natasha smiled to each of us as we stood in our positions. "See you in a minute."

The countdown began, and we were all sucked into the Quantum tunnel.


	11. Chapter 10

Steve, Tony, Bruce, Scott and I all warped to a city street not far from Avengers tower. The Chitauri had already started coming down from the portal, and Hulk could be heard smashing through the enemy in the distance.

"All right, we all have our assignments." Steve said as we all disengaged our Quantum suits to reveal the outfits underneath. "Two stones uptown, one stone, down. Stay low. Keep an eye on the clock."

As Steve finished his speech, 2012 Hulk came smashing through the street adjacent to us, destroying a car before leaping away. Bruce put a hand over his face, obviously embarrassed at his past self's behavior.

"Feel free to smash things along the way." Steve suggested.

"I think it's gratuitous," Bruce said, removing his shirt to more closely resemble his past self. "But whatever."

Bruce continued to pretend to smash a car in a sarcastic manner. He lightly punched the vehicle, making a small dent, all the while making ridiculous growling noises. He picked up a motorbike and threw it at a wall, wincing as it made contact. It took a lot of my self-control to not laugh at his feigned outburst.

Steve and I began making our approach to Avengers Tower, and Tony took to the sky in his Iron Man armor, with Scott tagging along for the ride in miniature form. Steve and I sneaked into the tower, riding in an elevator up a few floors before getting out and walking down hallways I had never seen before.

"Got to hustle, Cap." Tony said into the coms, "Things look like they're just about wrapped up here."

"Got it." Steve replied, "I'm approaching the elevator now."

"Uh, Mr. Rogers." Tony continued, "I almost forgot that that suit did nothing for your ass."

"No one asked you to look, Tony." Steve sighed, causing me to smile.

"I think you look great, Cap." Scott interjected, chipper as ever. "As far as I'm concerned, that's America's ass."

"Who are these guys?" Scott asked, doubtless meaning the Shield agents that Steve and I were soon to meet.

"They are Shield…Well, actually Hydra." Tony answered. "But, we didn't know that yet."

"Seriously, you didn't?" Scott said, "I mean… they look like bad guys."

"Tell me about it." I added, laughing.

"You're small, but you're talking loud." Tony cautioned. "And I was a little more concerned with you at the time, Loki. You did just throw me out of a building."

"Ladies." Steve cautioned.

"Alright, you're up, little buddy." Tony said, "There's our stone."

"Alright, flick me." Scott said.

After a moment's pause, Tony leapt from the tower, the suit carrying him safely down.

"All right, Cap, Loki. I got our scepter in the elevator just passing the 80th floor." Tony said as he continued down to his next destination.

"On it." Steve said. "Head to the lobby."

"Alright," Tony agreed. "See you there."

I shifted my appearance to that of a Shield agent, and followed Steve to the elevator doors. As the doors opened, the agent in charge seemed surprised to see Steve.

"Captain. I thought you were coordinating search and rescue?" he asked, bewildered.

"Change of plans." Steve said as we entered the elevator.

"Hey, Cap." one of the others nodded.

I looked around the elevator briefly, only to be shell shocked. (Y/N) stood in the corner, leaning against the wall with another agent offering minimal support. She looked every bit as beautiful as I had remembered her, and it took everything within me to not audibly gasp.

"I just got a call from the secretary." Steve said, pulling my attention away from (Y/N) for a moment. "I'm gonna be running point on the scepter."

"Sir?" the agent said, doubtful. "I don't understand."

"We got word that there may be an attempt to steal it." I added, hoping that direct truth would be enough to confuse them into listening.

"I'm sorry Cap." the agent named Rumlow said. "I can't give you the scepter."

"I'm gonna have to call the Director." the first agent said, moving to pull out his phone.

"That's okay. Trust me." Steve said, leaning over to whisper into the agent's ear, "Hail Hydra."

The agents seem completely mystified. They hand over the case to Steve, and we waited for our floor to arrive. I glanced back at (Y/N) once more, who was already looking at me. I offered a brief smile, and my heart ached at my inability to say anything, or even touch her. She smiled at me warmly in return, reaching out to touch my hand. I was startled by her action, but had no time to react before our stop arrived, and Steve and I exited the elevator.

"Are you alright here?" I asked Steve, reverting back to my normal self once the elevator doors had closed once more. "There's something else I'd like to do quickly."

"I'll be fine, yeah." Steve answered. Just don't mess anything up."

"Wouldn't dream of it." I said, before teleporting to the bottom of the building. I transfigured to being a Shield agent once more, only this time, I kept my real facial features and only changed my clothing. I walked into the bottom floor of the tower, watching for the elevator that (Y/N) was riding in. As they exited, only two agents guided her out, and I approached them, masking my voice.

"I'll take her from here." I said, gently grabbing her arm from the others.

"Affirmative." one of the agents said, "The ambulance is waiting for her around the corner."

The agents turned to leave, and I began walking with her. Once we were out of the building and almost to the ambulance, I stopped.

"Are you going to tell me how you managed to escape this time?" She asked, pulling the goggles away from my face.

Before I could verbally work up a response, I wrapped her up in my arms as tightly as I could without hurting her. I inhaled deeply, the floral scent of her hair instantly relaxing me.

"How did you recognise me earlier?" I asked, drinking in every second of being in her presence. "I didn't even look like myself. How did you know it was me?"

"Your eyes." she smiled, leaning away from me. She looked at me closer, slightly confused. "When did your hair get so long?"

"I can't really explain." I said, "And I can't really stay. Just promise me you'll be alright?"

"You… you're not my Loki are you?" she asked. "You're not from now, that's how your hair is so long. Where-_when_ are you from?"

"Always so perceptive." I mumbled, smiling. "I'm not from now, no. But I wanted to see you again while I was here."

"Am I not around where you're from?" she asked, her face falling.

"Not by choice." I answered. "But that's why we came here, to amend that. Among other things. I have to leave now, my lo-…" I paused, catching myself. At this point, (Y/N) might not have had any real feelings for me yet, and I didn't want to mess anything up. "I have to go. Stay safe."

I pressed my lips firmly to her forehead, breathing her sweet scent in, wishing so strongly that I could stay. She gave me her dazzling smile, and I finished walking her to the ambulance that would take her to the hospital. As the EMTs closed the doors, my comm buzzed in my ear.

"Yes, Steve, are we ready to leave?" I asked.

"Meet us in the alley." Steve said, his voice troubled.

I teleported there, to be met with Tony and Scott sitting in a wrecked car, and Steve pacing back and forth.

"Give me a break, Steve." Tony said, "I just got hit in the head with a Hulk."

"You said that we had one shot." Steve argued. "Are there any other options with the Tesseract?"

"No, no, no. There's no other options." Scott said, "There's no do-overs. We're not going anywhere else. We have one particle left. Each. That's it, alright? We use that… Bye, bye. You're not going home."

"Yeah well if we don't try," Steve countered, "No one else is going home, either."

"Is there a way to get more Pym particles?" I offered, "Are there any here in New York right now?"

"None." Scott groaned. "We screwed up. We screwed up big."

"I got it." Tony said, pointing to me. "There is another way. To retake the Tesseract, and acquire new particles. We'll stroll down memory lane, Steve. Military installation, Garden State."

"When were they both there?" Steve asked.

"They were there at a…" Tony trailed off. "I've got a vaguely exact idea."

"How vague?" Steve pressed.

"What are we doing?" Scott asked, frustrated.

"And I know how I know." Tony continued to Steve.

"Guys, what's up?" Scott asked, "What is it?"

"Well, it looks like we're improvising." Steve said.

"Right." Scott agreed. "What are we improvising?"

"You two aren't improvising anything." Tony said, gesturing to Steve.

Steve tossed the scepter to me, "Loki, Scott, get this to the compound."

"Suit up." Tony said, activating his Quantum suit. "0-4…" he began reading off numbers to Steve, which Steve repeated back as he punched them into his Quantum suit.

"Are you sure?" Scott interjected, "Cap. Captain. Steve, sorry, America. Rogers. Look, if you do this, and it doesn't work, you're not coming back."

"Yea thanks for the pep talk, pissant." Tony whined.

"Do you trust me?" Tony asked Steve."

"I do." Steve replied.

"Your call."

"Here we go." Steve said, counting off our departures.

We were sucked back into the Quantum tunnel, instantly spat back out onto the platform.

"Did we get them all?" Bruce asked, holding the time stone gingerly.

"You telling me this actually worked?" Rhodey said, removing his helmet.

My eyes came to a halt on Barton, who stood staring down, fighting down tears. One by one, everyone else noticed what was amiss.

"Clint, where's Nat?" Bruce asked.

Clint's silence told everyone all that they needed to know. They had completed their mission, but at a dire cost. Bruce fell to his knees, pounding the platform with his fist in grief.

After placing the stones in safe containers, we walked out to the lake next to the Compound, Tony, Steve, Thor, Clint, and Bruce all choosing to mourn Natasha together on the dock.

"Do we know if she had a family?" Tony asked.

"Yeah, us." Steve answered.

"What?" Thor asked, confused.

"I just asked him a question…" Tony replied, just as confused.

"Yea, but you're acting like she's dead. Why are we acting like she's dead?" Thor asked, his anger slowly building. "We have the stones, right? As long as we have the stones, Cap, we can bring her back, isn't that right? So stop this shit. We're the avengers, get it together."

"We can't get her back." Clint said horsley.

"Wha-what?" Thor responded.

"It can't be undone." he repeated, "It can't."

Thor laughed dryly. "I'm sorry. No offense, but you're a very earthly being, okay? We're talking about space magic. "Can't" seems very definitive, don't you think?"

"Look, I know that I'm way outside my paygrade here, but she still isn't here, is she?" Clint snapped back.

"Now that's my point-"

"It can't… be undone. Or, at least that's what the, the red floating guy had to say." Clint said, beginning to shout. "Maybe you wanna go talk to him? Okay? Go grab your hammer, and you go fly and you talk to him."

Clint's face fell, his voice shifting from anger to grief.

"It was supposed to be me. She sacrificed herself for that goddamned stone." he choked out. "She bet her life on it."

Bruce let out his first real outburst since we had began, throwing a bench across the lake. His anger spent, he turned to the rest of us with a sorrowful, resigned look across his face.

"She's not coming back." he sighed. "We have to make it worth it. We have to."

"We will." Steve confirmed.

"Let's get this done." Tony said, getting up and walking back to the compound.


	12. Chapter 11

Thor and I sat anxiously awaiting Tony's return to the meeting room with the new gauntlet. My stomach turned over and over, and I bounced my knee rapidly in an attempt to release the nervous energy. Thor sat next to me, squeezing my shoulder with a knowing look.

"You'll see her soon, brother." Thor said softly. "Everything will be over soon."

Tony and Bruce walked in, carrying the container that the new gauntlet resided in. They set it gingerly on the table, and we all stood around, looking at the marvel of technology.

"All right." Rocket said. "The glove's ready. Question is, who's gonna snap their freaking fingers?"

"I'll do it." Thor said.

"Excuse me?" Scott balked.

"It's ok." Thor said, stepping forward.

"Wait wait wait, Thor, just wait." Steve cautioned, holding Thor back. "We haven't decided who's gonna put that on yet."

"Oh, I'm sorry." Thor snapped. "What, were you just sitting around waiting for the right opportunity?"

"We should at least discuss it." I cautioned, hoping to calm my still unstable brother down.

"Look, us sitting here and staring at that thing is not gonna bring everybody back." Thor argued, "I'm the strongest Avenger, okay? So this responsibility falls upon me. It's my duty."

"It's not that…" Tony clarified.

"It's just…. Stop it! Just let me." Thor continued, tearing up. "Just let me do it, just let me do something good. Something great."

"Look… It's not just the fact that that glove is channeling enough energy to light up a continent, I'm telling you that you're in no condition." Tony said firmly.

"What do you think is coursing through my veins right now?" Thor asked.

"Cheese Whiz?" Rhodey retorted.

"Lightning." Thor corrected.

"Yea." Tony agreed sarcastically.

"Lightning won't help you, pal." Bruce said, stepping forward somberly. "It's gotta be me. You saw what those stones did to Thanos. It almost killed him. None of you could survive."

"How do we know that you will?" Steve asked.

"We don't." Bruce conceded. "But the radiation's mostly gamma. It's like…. I was made for this."

"Good to go, yeah?" Tony confirmed.

"Let's do it." Bruce agreed.

"You remember… everyone Thanos snapped away five years ago and just bringing them back to now, to today." Tony stressed, "Don't change anything from the last five years."

"Got it." Bruce said.

Everyone braced themselves as Bruce stepped up to the gauntlet. Thor shielded Rocket, and Tony activated his armor to shield himself and Barton.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y., do me a favor and activate Barn Door Protocol." Tony said as he engaged his helmet.

"Yes boss." the AI responded, beginning to close off the room with solid metal panels all around.

"Everybody comes home." Bruce murmured, before placing his hand into the gauntlet.

The second that the gauntlet was on, the power of the stones surged up Bruce's arm. He cried out in pain, sinking to his knees as the gauntlet continued to emit its energy.

"Take it off." Thor shouted, "Take it off!"

"No, wait." Steve shouted in return. "Bruce, are you okay?"

"Talk to me, Banner." Tony added.

"I'm okay, I'm okay." Bruce reassured, still groaning and fighting the intense pain coursing through his body.

He continued to fight to raise his arm, straining to get his fingers into position. With one final effort, Banner managed to snap his fingers, and he collapsed to the ground. The gauntlet slid from his arm, and Clint immediately kicked it away from him.

"Bruce!" Steve called out, hoping to wake him.

"Don't move him." Tony cautioned, spraying Banner's damaged arm with medical spray as Bruce began to wake.

"Did it work?" Bruce asked.

"Worth a shot." Thor said, "It's over. It's okay."

The panels removed themselves, opening up the room to natural light again. Scott walked towards some outside windows, seeing several birds flying around.

Clint's phone began to ring, his wife's face lighting up the screen as it buzzed.

"Honey." Clint said, struggling to speak when he answered the phone. "Honey."

"Guys… I think it worked!" Scott said, grinning from ear to ear.

Without warning, every hair in my body stood on end, and I dove to protect as many as I could with a shield. A single missile blew into the Compound, destroying the room we had been in. A continuous array of missiles continued to rain down, destroying the base completely and decimating the surrounding terrain.

I lost consciousness for a moment, coming do with debris surrounding me on all sides. Thor was rousing himself as well. We were surrounded by rubble, and some smaller pieces covered us. Groaning, I stood with Thor's assistance, my back aching in protest.

"Mayday, mayday!" Rhodey's voice called out through the coms, "Does anybody copy? We're in a lower level, it's flooding!"

"What?" Scott's voice responded, "Wait, I'm here! Can you hear me?"

With Scott assisting them, Thor walked to find a way out of the rubble. I walked, trying to find anyone else that might have survived closeby. I did find Tony, though he was not buried by anything and was actually seeking Steve. I assisted in his search, finding his shield first.

"Come on buddy." Tony said from around a corner, causing me to follow and notice Steve on the ground. "Wake up. That's my man." Tony took the shield from me, passing it to Steve. "You lose this again, I'm keeping it."

"What happened?" Steve asked.

"You mess with time, it tends to mess back." Tony answered. "You'll see."

Tony and I helped Steve to his feet, and then walked to where Thor stood, looking over the destroyed grounds to where a single figure sat among the rubble. Thanos.

"What's he been doing?" Tony asked.

"Absolutely nothing." Thor answered, staring at the Titan.

"Where are the stones?" Steve asked.

"Somewhere under all of this." Tony answered. "All I know is he doesn't have them."

"So we keep it that way." Tony said.

"You know it's a trap, right?" I asked.

"Yea." Tony said. "And I don't much care."

"Good." Thor said, his eyes beginning to glow. "Just as long as we are all in agreement." Lightning crackled in the overcast sky, and he summoned both Stormbreaker and 2013's Mjolnir to his hands. "Let's kill him properly this time."

I nodded, my armor shimmering into existence, and my knives appearing in my hands. We walked slowly down to where Thanos sat, and he made no motions to move as we approached and began to surround him.

"You could not live with your own failure. And where did that bring you? Back to me." Thanos mused. "I thought by eliminating half of life, the other half would thrive. But you've shown me that's impossible. And as long as there are those that remember what was, there will always be those that are unable to accept what can be. They will resist."

"Yep." Tony quipped, "We're all kinds of stubborn."

"I'm thankful. Because now, I know what I must do." Thanos stood, putting his helmet on and grabbing his double-bladed sword. "I will shred this universe down to its last then...With the stones you've collected for me, create a new one. Teeming with life, but knows not what it has lost but only what it has been given. A grateful universe."

"Born out of blood." Steve said.

"They'll never know it." Thanos countered, "Because you won't be alive to tell them."

Thanos moved in, swinging his sword at Thor, who blocked the strike easily with Stormbreaker. The three friends moved as a well-oiled machine, bouncing their attacks off of and through one another to make them more efficient. Thor and I fought as we had in days long past, not needing so much as a word between us to know what to do next.

Arms radiated from the back of Tony's armor. "Okay, Thor. Hit me." he instructed, aiming his repulsors at Thanos.

Thor used the combined power of Stormbreaker, Mjolnir, and his own innate power to summon lighting straight into the arms of Tony's suit, allowing Tony to blast Thanos with a super-concentrated beam of pure energy. Thanos managed to deflect the blow, coming close enough to throw Tony across the clearing, knocking him out briefly.

Steve, Thor and I continued to battle the Titan, our attacks becoming more and more quickly overwhelmed. Thor and I were thrown in opposite directions, and I was winded as I landed heavily on a large piece of concrete. I fought to stand as Thanos pressed Stormbreaker towards Thor's chest, trying as hard as I could to save my brother. Mjolnir flew across the sky, hitting Thanos in the head and saving Thor for a moment. The hammer soared back across the clearing, directly into Steve's hand as he stood mere feet from me.

"I knew it!" Thor cackled with joy, as Steve began to use the hammer in combination with his own shield to begin pounding Thanos.

I staggered as I tried to stand, Tony and Thor still laying defenseless as Steve held his own. Thanos had managed to gain an upper hand, knocking Mjolnir out of Steve's grip. As Thanos destroyed Steve's shield with his double-bladed sword, Thanos threw Steve across the battlefield, isolating him.

Steve shakily tried to stand, Mjolnir far from his mind as he stared down the Titan.

" In all my years of conquest...violence...slaughter... It was never personal." Thanos said, approaching Steve slowly. "But I'll tell you now... what I'm about to do to your stubborn, annoying little planet... I'm gonna enjoy it. Very, very much."

As Thanos spoke, his ship beamed down all of the Black Order, the Chitauri, and others that Thanos had recruited to his side. Steve slowly stood up, his face set with a fierce determination. He tightened his broken shield to his arm, and braced to stand against Thanos' army alone. He looked to me, then Mjolnir, then nodded slowly.

I stood in front of my brother, helping him to his feet as best I could. Thor called Mjolnir to himself, and then tossed it towards me. As a reflex, I attempted to catch it and prevent it from falling, knowing that I would simply be dragged to the ground, as always.

Except I wasn't.

I stood, awestruck and frozen in disbelief as Mjolnir rested in my hand, its weight more than easy to manage.

"You're worthy, little brother." Thor smiled, gripping my shoulder as I stood in complete bewilderment and awe of the weapon I held in my hand. "I'm proud of you."

My heart seemed as though it would burst, the support of my brother and the idea of worthiness more than I could process. Despite all of the wrongs I had done, all of the pain I had caused, I was still worthy? Tears welled in my eyes, and I gripped the handle tighter.

"Cap, you hear me?" came a crackling voice through the coms, it's connection faint, but growing.

"Cap, it's Sam." he said, "Can you hear me?"

A yellow portal appeared behind Steve as Thor and I ran to him, joined by Tony.

"On your left." Sam said, and the flare of sunlight pouring from the portal was interrupted by three figures.

Okoye walked from the portal, alongside the Black Panther and Shuri, fully restored and ready to fight. T'Challa nodded slowly at Cap, and Sam soared in from above in his Falcon armor. As Falcon flew above our heads, dozens more portals opened up all around the battlefield, from all sorts of planets and places.

Doctor Strange descended from one of them, followed by the rest of the Guardians crew that had been dusted five years prior. More and more people began to arrive from all corners of the universe, some backed up with forces of their own. As the Wakandan army begins to pour through the portal, my eyes rest on the one person I had been thinking of for five years.

(Y/N) was back. Her hands glowed with the magic she had learned while in Asgard, and her face was set in a fierce look of determination that set something alive inside of me. My heart raced as I tried to think of a way to safely reach her, to speak with her for the first time in too long. I was brought back to the reality of the present by Steve's yelling.

"AVENGERS!" He bellowed, re-invigorated by the sight of all of his allies. He reached out for Mjolnir, which I gladly released.

"Assemble."


	13. Chapter 12

All of our forces charged forth, crying out and ready to defeat the most dangerous enemy we had ever encountered. As the opposing forces clashed, I worked my way as close to (Y/N) as I could, slowly making my way towards her.

Clint's voice echoed over the comms, his heavy breathing evidence of the speed he was running at. "Cap, what do you want me to do with this damn thing?"

"Get those stones as far away as possible!" Cap answered, the sounds of battle dimly in the background.

"No!" Bruce shouted, "We need to get them back where they came from!"

"There's no way to get them back." Tony said, "Thanos destroyed the Quantum Tunnel."

"That wasn't our only time machine." Scott countered, shrinking back to a normal person's size.

"Anyone see an ugly brown van?" Steve called out.

"Yes!" Val's voice responded, as I saw her soaring overhead on her pegasus, "But you're not going to like where it's parked."

"Scott, how long do you need to get that thing working?" Steve asked.

"Maybe ten minutes?" Scott surmised.

"Get it started." Steve ordered, "We'll get the stones to you."

"We're on it, Cap." A feminine voice confirmed.

The din of battle hadn't slowed, and Thanos' forces seemed unending and impossible. Wanda was closeby, her ability to clear large areas useful in my pursuit of reaching (Y/N).

"Loki!" Thanos called out, pointing his blade to me. "All that I had given you, and you still choose to remain on the losing side?"

"You have given me nothing but blood and pain." I spat back, "And I plan on returning the favor."

Using doubles and teleportation, I was able to combat Thanos as Wanda approached slowly. I heard (Y/N) cry out, and I was distracted for a moment. That moment was all it took for Thanos to throw me down, blade ready to strike the final blow.

Wanda dropped from the sky in front of Thanos, her eyes glowing and face awash with unbridled fury.

"You.. took… _everything_ from me." she breathed, her anger cutting and unfiltered.

"I don't even know who you are." Thanos said, moving to attack her instead.

"You will." She replied calmly, beginning to float and lifting large pieces of debris with her.

I used the opportunity to scramble out of the way, running to find (Y/N) and help her. I heard her call out again, this time quieter. I turned around a corner, and found her there with one of Thanos' goons attempting to choke her out. My knife met its mark faster than I could even think of it, dropping the assailant to the ground.

Confused, she looked around her for a moment before her eyes locked onto mine. Her eyes softened, her lips parted slightly, and she ran to me as I ran to her. The second we embraced, I felt at home. All of the pain, stress, anger, bitterness, and struggle of the past five years melted away, leaving nothing but security and wholeness. Even through the grime of battle, I could smell her lightly floral scent, her hair's length still just as silky between my fingers as it had been years ago. She sighed in contentment, her warmth reaching me even through my armor.

The moment of bliss was quickly interrupted, as Thanos' ship fired down. We were surrounded by explosions, chunks of debris flying in every direction. I threw up a protective shield around (Y/N) and myself, crouching by a large slab of concrete and shielding her with my body as best I could.

Just as suddenly as it had started, the ship stopped firing down on us, choosing instead to fire up at the heavens at something I couldn't quite yet see.

A brilliant golden streak tore through Thanos' ship, destroying it in a fiery explosion as it crashed to the ground. The shockwave from its impact knocked us to the ground, and raised dust into the air.

"Danvers, we need an assist here." Steve called out through the coms, and Danvers flew over to one portion of the battlefield.

"Time to end this once and for all." (Y/N) said, brandishing her sword.

We ran across the battlefield, cutting down enemies as we went, attempting to reach the van in time to help Danvers bring the gauntlet to Scott.

When we could see the van in the distance, Danvers was holding off Thanos alone. She was fighting trying to prevent Thanos from snapping his fingers, the Iron Infinity Gauntlet now on his hand.

It seemed as if she had an easy victory ahead of her, until Thanos yanked the power stone from the gauntlet, using its sole full power to catch her off guard and throw her into a massive pile of concrete, incapacitating her. Placing the stone back in the gauntlet, the stone's power began arcing up his arm, just as it had with Banner.

Stark flew in, pulling on the gauntlet in an attempt to remove it. His attempt proved futile, as Thanos batted him away, preparing to snap his fingers.

"I am… inevitable." Thanos said pridefully, raising his hand and snapping his fingers.

The snap was nothing but a dull clicking noise, and Thanos turned the gauntlet in confusion. The stones were nowhere to be seen.

We all turned to Stark, who now knelt, the stones falling into place within the glove of his armor.

"And I… am… Iron Man."

Tony snapped his fingers, a blinding flash of white ripping through the battlefield. After our eyes adjusted, we looked around to see all of Thanos' forces crumbling to ash, as half of all life had done five years prior. Steve stumbled nearby, sighing in exhaustion as he took in our victory.

Thanos staggered, mouth agape as his entire army disintegrated around him. He sat down, his face sorrowful and defeated as he slowly was erased from existence himself.

Tony let out a breathy smile, and I ran to him to help him sit down. His entire right side had been completely destroyed by the power of the stones, and he was fighting a losing battle with life. Rhodey approached, placing a calming hand on Tony's face. A young man swung up to Stark, tears already forming in his eyes.

"Hey.. Mr Stark? Can you hear me? It's Peter." the boy breathed, trying to get the rapidly fading Tony to look and acknowledge him. "We won, Mr. Stark… We won. Mr. Stark, we won, and you did it, sir. You did it."

Tony remained unresponsive, and Peter began to break down, hugging him.

"I'm sorry… Tony…" Peter sobbed, and Rhodey pulled him aside to grieve, allowing Pepper to sit in front of Tony.

"Hey." She whispered.

Tony looked to his wife, "Hey, Pep…" he breathed.

"Friday?" Pepper asked, her face briefly awash with pain afterwards.

"Tony, look at me." She said, making sure that Tony was looking at her, smiling through her budding tears. "We're gonna be okay. You can rest now."

With her words, Tony's body relaxed as he released his final breath. (Y/N) tucked herself into my chest, and I held her tightly as my own tears fell. Pepper began to openly sob, knowing that Tony did not need her to be strong any longer.

When we had retreated from the battlefield, (Y/N) and I attended to one another's wounds. Though they were all minor, there were numerous cuts and scrapes, and it took time to finish.

"I can't believe I was gone for five years." (Y/N) mumbled as she cleaned the last of my wounds. "It only felt like I passed out for a moment. Then, all the sudden Dr. Strange had opened a portal, and it was time for us to march on Thanos' armies, and you weren't there anymore. It didn't even seem real until I saw everything that he had destroyed on the other side of the portal."

"It was the longest five years of my life." I mumbled, wrapping her up in my arms. "There's so much that I want to tell you, but I don't even know where to begin."

"Here is fine." she replied, pressing her lips to mine. She pulled me towards our bed, throwing me down to the mattress gently. Time seemed to slow as I took in her beautiful smile, her gentle curves that pressed up against me. A mischievous smirk crossed her face, and I heard the room's door lock. "You'll have plenty of time to tell me later." She said, the smirk growing into a grin. "You're going to have me first."

Just like that, I was whole once more.


	14. Epilogue

Tony's funeral was held at his house, and there was not a dry eye to be seen. Everyone stood silently to watch Pepper put a wreath out onto the lake, Stark's first ARC reactor floating in the center. Most lingered after the ceremony to show their support for Pepper and Morgan, and celebrate the life that had been given for the universe's well-being.

It was touching to see just how many lives Tony had directly affected, how many people came to pay their respects.

As some began to trickle out, Bruce and Steve asked for help in assembling a the miniature Quantum tunnel that would take the stones back to their proper timeline. When the work had been finished, Bruce began punching numbers into the console, prepping the tunnel for travel.

"Now Steve, are you sure you want to do this alone?" Bruce asked. "That's a lot of stones to be carrying around all by yourself."

"I think I can manage." Steve responded, picking up Mjolnir and stepping onto the platform. "But I wouldn't exactly mind the company."

"I'll go." (Y/N) suggested, "I want to see what it's like!"

"I'll go with as well." I said, tossing her a spare Quantum nanosuit. "Many hands make light work."

"I'll trust you guys to take back the scepter and the Tesseract then." Steve said, passing those to us in separate containers.

"Are you guys ready?" Bruce asked, "I've got the new configuration all punched in."

"Go ahead." Steve said, all of our helmets engaging in unison.

I gripped (Y/N)'s hand, the other holding the scepter that I had to return to the proper Shield agents. (Y/N) and I warped to the alley, and made our way towards the tower quickly. I placed the scepter carefully into the open case it had been taken from, closing and locking the mechanism silently.

"How are we going to get this back there?" (Y/N) asked, "There's some kind of craziness happening in there."

"Bruce must have returned us to when Tony and Scott were initially stealing it, or trying to." I answered. "Our best bet would be to slide the Tesseract as close to them as we can get it, since the case was knocked open at this point."

"You've got it." (Y/N) said, walking forward before I could stop her, opening the case. "I'll do it since during this time I'm still a Shield agent."

"Wait, you shouldn't-" before my warning could fully leave my lips, (Y/N) touched the Tesseract. Though it did not burn her hand, I could instantly see its blue glowing energy seeping through her skin.

"Oh no." She murmured, "I have to move, NOW."

She ran into the tower, nearly throwing the cube across the floor towards the group of Avengers, 2012 Tony still on the ground from the cardiac issue that Scott had given him. The Tesseract slid to a stop next to 2012 Thor, and this time, it was retrieved before my 2012 self could grab it.

(Y/N) gripped her hand, hissing and groaning in discomfort as we hurriedly left the tower.

"Are you alright?" I asked repeatedly, trying to see the damage that had been done to her right palm.

"I'm fine, I think." She said, gazing up to me with glowing blue eyes."But I don't think I'm Tesseract-free anymore."

"What are we going to do with-" I was cut off by the Quantum tunnel sucking us back in, depositing us back on the platform in front of Bruce.

"What happened?" Bruce asked, worried. "Everything seemed normal, but then (Y/N)'s signature shifted so quickly I almost lost it!"

"(Y/N) is host to the tesseract once more." I sighed. "Though I don't know just how much of it."

"I think she'll be fine." Danvers said, having been called over to assist if needed. "I got nearly blown to smithereens by it, and here I am. If anything wierd happens, you can give me a ring, but I think that it's such a small amount, I doubt she'd even know it happened if it wasn't for her eyes. And even that's dimming."

"It's because I'm not close to it." (Y/N) said. "I guess I never will be again, given that the Tesseract is gone now."

"Then I guess we're all of it that's left." Danvers smiled.

"Where's Steve?" Thor asked, "Wasn't he supposed to come back too?"

"Yea," Bruce agreed, "But I'm giving him a little extra time, since he's got more stones to put away."

"Does that even matter, if he's in the time machin-"

"I'm working on it, okay?" Bruce said, cutting Thor off. "I've only got one functional hand right now. I'll get him back."

"No you won't." Bucky murmured, almost too quietly for me to hear.

"Well, if that craziness is over, I'm ready to go home." Thor said.

"I keep forgetting that you have a new home here." (Y/N) smiled softly, "There's so much for me to catch up on."

"I'm sure you're not the only one that feels that way." Thor laughed, "Five years is a lot to miss. In any case, I have some things to sort out there, and you would love it, (Y/N)."

"Allow me to introduce you to New Asgard, and catch you up on at least a small part of what you weren't around to see." I said, taking her hand.

"I can help with that." Strange said as he walked by, opening a portal that gave a brilliant view of the cliffs that overlooked New Asgard as dawn began to break.

"Thank you, Stephen." I nodded.

The portal closed once we had stepped through it, the fresh sea breeze blowing in our faces as we approached the cliff's edge.

We chose to sit down and watch the sun slowly rise into the sky, the gulls beginning to awaken for the day.

"I spoke to mother when I went to Asgard." Thor said quietly.

"What did you say?" I asked as (Y/N) leaned onto my shoulder.

"Lots of things." Thor replied, sighing. "I might have divulged our entire plan, and the problem leading up to it."

"That seems like a risky decision." I smiled.

"Since when do I make any other kind?" Thor replied, chuckling. After a pause, he turned to look at me. "She was very proud of you, brother. She almost couldn't believe how much you've changed."

"She always saw the worst of me, and loved me through it." I replied, squeezing (Y/N)'s hand.

"She also brought it to my mind just how much you've changed, you've matured." Thor continued, gazing out to the sun. "How much wiser you've become. You're a real leader now."

"I wouldn't go that far." I said.

"Well Mjolnir seemed to indicate otherwise." Thor countered, a kind smile on his face. "I suppose I'd better go speak with Valkyrie."

Thor rose, dusting off himself before turning to walk away.

"Why's that?" I asked, looking to him.

"She needs to know about the change of leadership that will happen when I leave."

"You're leaving?" (Y/N) and I asked at the same time in bewilderment.

"I've never been right for this." Thor said, gesturing to New Asgard below. "You know how much I always want to move, to do new things. That's not befitting for a King with a people that need his help."

"Is Valkyrie replacing you?" I asked, "I'm not sure she'll want that responsibility quite this fast."

"No, brother." Thor replied. "The line of the throne falls to you."

"I beg your pardon?" I stammered. "Thor, I don't appreciate this kind of gaming."

"I'm not kidding." Thor said, "You'll make a far better king than I've been for the past five years. New Asgard will flourish under your leadership. It's time for me to be who I am, rather than who I'm supposed to be. And the same is true of you."

"But where will you go?" (Y/N) asked, standing up.

I followed suit, "What will you do?"

"I'm not sure." Thor answered. "For the first time in a thousand years, I… I have no path. But I will have a ride. Rabbit will be here soon with the Benatar. Wherever we go, I know that it will be the right path for me."

"Will you ever come back?" I asked.

"I'll of course visit you." Thor smiled. "There's sure to be nieces and nephews in my future, and I wouldn't miss that for every world in the universe."

(Y/N) and I both flushed red, the head in our cheeks increasing the more we thought about it.

"And look, brother." Thor said, gesturing out to the sunrise and open ocean. "You were right all along. The sun is shining on us again."

"I don't know what to say." I said, mind still spinning. "Other than thank you, and I will do my very best to protect Asgard, and help it to thrive."

"I know you will." Thor said, beginning to walk away. "You've worked too hard, and come too far, to allow anything else."

Thor walked away, leaving (Y/N) and I alone on the cliff.

"So what now, my king?" (Y/N) said, smiling as she buried herself in my chest.

"We could keep Thor from leaving." I joked, "Give him that nephew and niece he seems to want so badly."

(Y/N) laughed, the golden sunlight bathing her skin in a heavenly glow. The sweet sound of her laughter melted me, and my pulse jumped as I greedily took in her beauty.

"Maybe we should finally get married before we jump into starting a family." She smiled, wrapping her arm around me. "I'm too selfish to share you quite yet."

"Whatever you wish." I said, wrapping her in my arms and pressing my lips to hers before whispering into her ear.

"My Queen."


End file.
